We hooked up with the infamous designer and social activist, Wayne Hemingway, to ask him the questions you suggested:
Are you tempted to start a new label & go back into fashion?
It’s not inconceivable that I might go back into fashion, but I wouldn’t go back full time. Fashion has been a big part of both of mine and Geraldine’s lives; we started as kids and were in it for 19 years. That’s a long time for creative people to stay in one area. By nature, they tend to grow out of things and move on.
When are you going to start tweeting?
I don’t have time to chat to my own family, let alone chat online. I do use digital media but I tend to use the more specialist sites, like ones for collecting – ebay and discographies. I like specialist interest sites that cater to my collections like vintage fashion and Northern Soul.
What has digital done for design?
Design has become much more democratised. Where I grew up – in Morecombe in Blackburn – there was no such concept as design. There were people who were in the know, who wore designer wear and went to the right clubs but you didn’t recognise it unless you were in to that. Things used to be tribal; but it’s not the same now – the punk movement wouldn’t happen. It’s different now, you can enjoy Vladimir Chekov and the Turner Prize and the YBAs and they can live happily together and you can still be accepted.
Why did you do Kiosk Kiosk?
When we started Red or Dead in 1989. We started trading out of a lock up shop in Kensington Market – it’s now a PC World – and our rent was £90 a week. Now that same space – if it wasn’t given over to PC World, would be worth about £1,760 a week. Even taking into consideration inflation, that’s an extraordinary rise. There is no major city in the UK where someone starting out could have affordable access to that kind of retail space. So we asked ourselves how we could get that opportunity back. With kiosks there are no rates, no planning permission. We should be encouraging creative start-ups. Other cities, Copenhagen, Denmark are much better at encouraging this kind of creativity. We need to get much better at it. If we don’t, all we’ll have is clone high streets.
What’s after the Vintage Festival?
The Vintage Festival has been a massive project for us. It’s exhausting, exhilarating, thrilling, frightening and exhausting. Since January we have literally had no sleep. And the question for us now is where do we take it? Will it become a label? A movement? Will we go international? We also have three social housing projects to complete.
It would be remiss of us not to use what we have created for good. Social change has a ripple effect. Red or Dead was the first of its kind – the first affordable fashion range, it paved the way for TopShop to be at London fashion week. Designers have an opportunity to make things better. They’re political people, and creatives. It would be remiss of us not to use that. You have to try to be positive, to have a positive effect.
What will become tomorrow’s vintage?
It could be something with a nostalgic quality, like the yellow pages, or stuffed crust pizza. Also design that pioneered, like low energy cars or the first mobile phone. All of the eras at the festival are important. But this isn’t a nostalgia fest – we’re also looking to the future.
Which era had most influence on you?
The 70s had the most influence on me because I was a teenager growing up then. I went to my first concert – David Bowie, which was the start of my obsession with music and fashion. There was a man, wearing makeup. Straight and gay, ethics of graphics and DIY in Punk, we had no money but we could fit in. Then came Northern Soul, the New Romantics and Joy Division. The 70s live throughout Red or Dead and Wayne Hemingway.
